Kelley's Corner article on Annual Town Meeting warrant

The Kelley's Corner project is again on the Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting which will start on April 1, 2019. The Article is for a $525,000 appropriation to finish the engineering design and do appraisals for the parcels that the Town must acquire for this project. A copy of the Article from the DRAFT Warrant (subject to change until the final version is sent to the printer on March 12, 2019) is below.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDoT) will hold a Design Public Hearing on the project on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, at Town Hall, this is the Notice:

The purpose of this hearing is to provide the public with the opportunity to become fully acquainted with the proposed Intersection & Signal Improvements project. All views and comments made at the hearing will be reviewed and considered to the maximum extent possible.

New traffic signals are proposed at the intersections of Charter Road and Community Lane with Mass. Avenue. The project will upgrade the existing traffic signals at the intersection of Main Street and Mass. Avenue to optimize signal timings and phasing and provide compliant pedestrian and bicycle crossings. Bicycle accommodations consisting of a 5’ bicycle lane have been provided in accordance with applicable design guides.

To see if the Town will raise and appropriate, transfer and/or appropriate from available funds, a sum of money to be expended by the Town Manager for design, engineering and appraisal services related to the Kelley’s Corner Improvement Initiative as listed below, including related incidental costs, or take any other action relative thereto.

A. Supplemental Engineering Services $
B. Appraisal Services $

Total $ 525,000

Summary

This article requests supplemental funding for engineering services and funding for appraisal services for the Kelley’s Corner improvement project.

A. Supplemental Engineering Services
The 2016 Annual Town Meeting appropriated $756,000 for the final engineering design (100%). The engineering contract awarded to Greenman-Pedersen Inc. (GPI) totaled $743,708.40, leaving an inadequate contingency. The contract was structured into two MassDOT defined engineering phases, the 25% plan phase for $316,180.27 and the 75%-100% for $427,528.14.

$73,138.15 of additional engineering cost was incurred during the 25% phase. The 25% plan is completed and has been submitted to MassDOT for review. MassDOT is expected to hold a 25% plan public hearing sometime in late spring or early summer. An additional $70,011.00 will be necessary to complete the 75%-100% design phase. $200,850.85 provides adequate project contingency (22%).

Approximately 61% of the added cost relates to the realignment and signalization of the Charter Road intersection with Massachusetts Avenue, which addresses sight distance, safety and capacity issues. These improvements had not been anticipated in 2016. Approximately 13% of the added cost relates to the signalization of the Community Lane intersection with Massachusetts Avenue, also not anticipated in 2016 when an analysis had not found sufficient justification for a signal. Numerous comments during public outreach efforts had stressed the safety issues that people experience at this intersection especially since the completion of the new CVS. Further study and analysis led to adjustments to traffic routing and more efficient timing at the various traffic signals in the project area with the result that the inclusion of a traffic signal at the Community Lane and Massachusetts Ave. intersection can now be justified. Overall, the adjustments will significantly improve the capacity and roadway performance in the Kelley’s Corner area as compared to earlier plan iterations.

Other added cost items include: Additional meetings and several redesign alternatives for the streetscape along 300 Main Street, the Hosmer House owned by the Acton Historical Society (7%); various adjustments in several locations for better functionality of private properties where feasible (14%); expansion of the project limits for longer sidewalks on Massachusetts Avenue westerly along the Acton Boxborough School campus and easterly towards Townhouse Lane (5%).

The project alterations in the 25% design phase, especially the redesign and signalization of the Charter Road and Community Lane intersections with Massachusetts Avenue translate into additional engineering work and cost in the 75%-100% design phase. Additional hours for landscape design were also added in response to requests from the Kelley’s Corner Steering Committee and Design Review Board.
The project changes increase the construction cost, now estimated at approximately $14.6 million. The Town has secured Federal and State construction funding for 2022 through the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and anticipates absorption of the increased construction cost through the TIP.

B. Appraisal Services
Massachusetts Avenue (Route 111) through the Kelley’s Corner area is a State-owned highway. MassDOT will undertake all necessary right-of-way acquisitions, including appraisals, along Massachusetts Avenue. Main Street (Route 27) is a Town-owned highway; Community Lane is a private way. To receive TIP construction funding, the Town is responsible for completing appraisals and paying for all necessary right-of-way acquisitions along Route 27 and for Community Lane. Acquisitions, including appraisals, must comply with the Federal Uniform Act (Public Law 91-646, The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970). Under this process every affected property owner is entitled to just compensation. The Town is required to hire an appraiser and separately a review appraiser to establish just compensation for each acquisition parcel (temporary easements, permanent easements, and real property). The appraisals will determine the total just compensation value of the acquisitions that the Town must undertake for the Kelley’s Corner infrastructure project.

Comments

"Community Lane" is the name being used for the road between Starbucks and the Roche Brothers mall, one of the proposed new traffic lights would be at its intersection with Mass Ave (Rt 111), CVS is on the other side of that intersection. Community Lane used to be referred to as "No Name Lane", it is not presently a public road, the land is owned by the same people who own the Roche Brothers parcels. It is one of the parcels that the Town would have to acquire for the proposed project.

The other proposed new traffic light is at the road from the schools, next to the tennis courts -- that is Charter Road -- and the upper KMart parking lot.

I'm not at all sure I understand this. Reading construction proposals is not one of my strengths. If I'm understanding correctly, they are looking to put one light at the corner of the no-name road (Community Lane) between the plazas just east of the current light at Kelley's Corner and another at the intersection of Charter Road and Mass Ave? That's three lights in a quarter mile. Is it just me or does that seem a little bit excessive?
Would somebody please tell me that I've misunderstood? Because I live in West Acton and I'm looking at an awful lot of aggravation in the future if this thing passes...